I came across a study that said the creation of art lowers stress and that led me down the though path of taking up drawing as a hobby. However, I have little experience with it and the only interests I had as a kid with it was comic books. In school I recall being asked to draw a shoe and fruit but found it extremely boring. It seems like most drawing books follow this pattern of drawing random household objects also.

Such objects hold little meaning for me and I'm not sure if it's natural. I'm questioning whether drawing is the hobby for me or if there are in fact talented artists out there that also find such objects boring.

I could be wrong - that's not unknown - but... maybe you're seeing objects and other artists are seeing textures or contrasts they want to try to interpret.

For example: an old pair of boots might not in themselves be appealing objects. But look deeper and maybe you'll wonder how you might draw the cracked leather, or make the sole look difference from the upper. Or maybe it's the history of the boot that interests you, so you look for ways that bring out the boot's character - the heel worn down much more on one side than the other, the chewed end of the lace (maybe he had a dog!), the bulge on the side (perhaps he had a bunion or a deformed foot)... and so on.

What's interesting about fruit? Well, try placing an apple next to a peach and then find out how to make one look semi-glossy and the other velvet. And both are three-dimensional spherical objects, so maybe you might learn about core shadows and highlights, how no values on one side equal those of the other, and even the nature of the shadows each fruit casts.

Drawing is really about telling stories, so take your object (whatever it is) and tell me, the viewer, how you feel about it (other than boredom ), what's happened to it, what's about to happen to it. And you might be surprised how much interest and beauty there is in a commonplace object once you begin to look deeper into it.

Finally - and ideally - draw what interests you. The examples I used above were just a means of teaching yourself techniques, and they're perfectly good objects for that. What are you're interests? Flower arranging? Draw plants and botanical subjects. Welding? Draw metal structures, even fantasy machines. Animals? Draw dogs, cats, bears, snakes...

To draw well you have to understand the subject you are drawing, and having an interest in it is an excellent first step.

I did enjoy reading this post and I can see that different points of view depends who is looking at which direction?It's very interesting what you're sharing with us Mike and it's bringing something up to my mind ...Dear akromyk you know that we're all different and we need to find out the truth of ourselves and we're living to discover our lives, were we belong to and who we are...I can share something about me , it might help you or not.When I'm walking my dog I'm enjoying every each walk.Every day is different.The wind is moving the leaves sometimes stronger sometimes lighter, the wind's sound is differend every time then.., it's dark outside or it's early morning.., the birds are singing their songs or they're quiet...The bee escaping from under your shoes, the way it's flying off, the flowers on the field... The trees looking different on Spring or Winter...The grass...What I'm saying is I am enjoying every each walk.I'm looking around and every each time I can notice differences and even I'm walking throughout same places it might be routine, but it never is?What I think it's that, it depends who you are?For example, when you've mentioned the old boring shoes it might be boring because as you've said akromyk it's just shoes, but what Mike said it's making sense to me...I could see the same old shoes every day in different ligh conditions what will make them interesting to me?The same shoes will make the shadow on the surface looking different ... The shadow can be lighter or darker, short or longer... The wrinkles on the shoes will look different too...I think that the boring shoes might be full of life!?It's only up to us if we're looking to see it if it's making sense I might be wrong and miss slighty the point of your question dear akromyk. I just wanted to share my point of view.Thank you.